Original subtitles

Right then, so my top 12 tips for

an effective Instagram strategy, coming right up fresh

out of the kitchen.

Some of these you may already practice and

use.

If you're really new to Instagram for your

business, these are vital tips to help you

grow and establish your brand on the platform.

Some of them may seem super obvious, but

even some of the obvious ones, I still

see people falling foul of.

So let's get stuck in.

Number one, using a planner or scheduler.

I'll be demonstrating what I use and how

later on in the course under business and

automation, but there are multiple benefits to using

one of the many planners now on the

market.

Firstly, curation.

They allow you to visualize and plan your

feed, making sure that the look and feel

of your posts remain on brand.

But most importantly, they can now auto post.

So if you wanted to, you can spend

an afternoon throwing your images in, moving them

around to look visually aesthetic, bang some copy

in, set the time to post and magic.

You don't forget to post for three days

straight.

Number two, your bio.

That's the little block at the top of

your Insta profile that lets any visitors know

who you are and what you're about.

And this mistake is one of my biggest

pet peeves when I see it on Instagram.

And that is a user who is hiding

behind the camera, you know the type of

shot, and then their Instagram handle and name

is something like Kent's wedding photographer.

Come on, I want to know who you

are.

That means I want to see your face

and know your name.

If you avoid both of those, all you

are doing is putting up barriers to entry.

So your bio should clearly state your name,

what you do and where you work.

No excuses.

Number three, hashtags.

Yes, yes, they are still relevant.

And yes, you should still use them.

But a few tips here.

First and foremost, make them relevant.

If you're showing a shot of a bride

holding a flowers at a wedding in Brighton,

use tags focused around the dress, the venue,

Brighton, flowers.

But don't stuff tags in there that have

no direct relation to the image, such as

Tuscany wedding or black tie wedding.

Also, don't go straight in for the big

hitting hashtags, you know, the really obvious ones

that have tens of millions of uses, hashtag

photographer, hashtag wedding.

There are so many images using these tags.

You're a small fish in the Pacific Ocean.

Instead, focus on niche hashtags, niche hashtags, niche

hashtags.

Try saying that after a few beers.

You know what I mean there, right?

Focus on these and you stand a much

greater chance of being noticed by your target

audience.

For example, hashtag bride will have millions of

uses, over 70 million by the looks of

it.

Whereas boho brides, for example, isn't as fiercely

used, 75,000 uses.

So you have a much greater chance of

being noticed just so long as it's relevant

and the bride you're posting has a bohemian

vibe, yeah?

Number four, tagging.

Tag your supplies in the image and the

copy.

The key aim here is to get your

suppliers to do some marketing for you.

They get images for their stories and feed

and in return, they showcase your work to

their audience.

This is a no brainer and further into

the business and automation lessons, I'll show you

how to streamline this process to make it

super efficient.

Number five, location.

Use it, tag it.

Do I need to say any more on

that one?

Simple, quick and easy.

Number six, stories.

Now we're getting a little more serious here

and stories aren't an original feature of Instagram

and some people do them incredibly well and

some just don't or some avoid them altogether.

I think the first thing to stress here

is that these don't need to be polished

or perfect.

See stories as a temporary window into your

business and life for your audience to see.

They're only live for 24 hours so you

don't need to overthink it and actually, if

you're new to stories, you'll learn more by

just doing them than trying to get them

to be perfect from the off.

But like the above points, always try and

tag relevant suppliers and couples if you post

images or videos but also don't be afraid

to be real.

Show your audience what goes on behind the

scenes of your business.

Show them who you are but keep it

on brand.

It's great to show them you're real and

have a cat but don't post 800 images

of your cat and they're one story of

a wedding image, you get me?

I mean, I personally don't like cats, I'm

a dog kind of guy but let's not

get into that argument.

Finally, just keep it balanced and if you

can try talking to camera, even better.

Winky face.

Number seven, reels.

I know, I know, I said if you

don't like them, you don't have to and

you don't but there's no denying that they

can be hugely powerful if you can get

it right.

I'm still trying to work them into my

brand so I'm a novice here but a

couple of tips I can give you.

Firstly, brainstorm and plant some ideas first.

Go and look what's out there in the

industry and put your own take on a

concept.

Secondly, start capturing a little bit more video

footage on your phone.

It's amazing what can inspire you when you

go back through the archives and if you

do come up with some ideas after brainstorming,

you might already have something there ready and

waiting.

Number eight, plan for key dates.

A classic marketing trick that actually I'm guilty

of not doing enough of so that's changing

from today.

I'm listening to my own advice on this

one.

Key dates are dates in the calendar year

that have a certain topic or they're dates

that are made up for the supermarkets to

sell us more stuff.

Okay, I'm being a cynic but I know

you all agree with me.

So for us wedding photographers, Father's Day, where's

that shot of the emotional dad?

Mother's Day, where's mum helping with the dress

or dancing with the grandkids?

Bonfire night, have you shot a wedding with

fireworks?

Others might include International Women's Day, Summer Solstice,

International Beer Day.

Again, it's up to you to decide if

they're relevant and if you have the content

to match it and if posting it remains

on brand.

Number nine, carousel posts.

These are the multi-image posts that allow

you to swipe across to see more.

The main reason these are popular and effective

is because they stop the Instagram scroll and

give your images more airtime or screen time.

Again, a signal to the Instagram algorithm that

you've got content people want to see.

Number 10, portrait images.

Similar to the carousel one previously, portrait images

cover more of the user's screen surface area.

And studies show that this increase in surface

area use grabs the user's attention more than

it would if the image were landscape, therefore

smaller.

Portraits are also great for sharing on stories

as stories are portrait crop.

So more portraits, please, Bob.

Number 11, posting time.

Again, I'm going to show you in the

automation lessons how I can automate this, but

fundamentally, there are times of the day when

Instagram has more engaging traffic.

Much like the rush hour, there are better

times of the day to post your content.

If you post it at, say, 11.30

at night before you hit the pillow, who's

going to be online to see it over

the next five or six hours?

Again, check out the business lessons coming up

to see what tools I use.

Number 12, last but not least, show your

face.

I'm not repeating myself here.

The bio image is still correct.

I mean, show your face on your feed

and on your stories.

Show up.

It's amazing how much your audience will engage

and champion you when they know who you

are.

Be honest and open and be brave enough

to put yourself out there once in a

while and see what happens.

Phew, phew, phew, phew, phew.

I think that's it.

There may be some more tips to come

in the future, but for now, these are

the foundations to start building.

See you in the next video.